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Cambodia’s ruling party facing leadership dilemma

Hun Sen may be grooming children to take over political dynasty

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Cambodia prime minister Hun Sen. Photo: AP

Cambodia’s long-ruling party faces a rare leadership dilemma - how do you replace a strongman premier who has run the country almost single-handedly for decades? Well, maybe with his son.

Although he has vowed to stay in power for another decade or more, signs are growing that 60-year-old Prime Minister Hun Sen is grooming his children to inherit a political dynasty.

Clean-cut, cheerful and wildly popular with ruling party voters, US-educated Hun Many is his youngest son and the first of his five children to seek political office.

The cherubic 30-year-old is already a top official in his father’s cabinet and head of the ruling party’s youth wing.

Now he is running for a seat in parliament in the southern province of Kampong Speu in Sunday’s general election.

And if his public pronouncements on the campaign trail are anything to go by, he is a chip off the old block.

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